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00:00:00
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: And away we go. It's Bradley Jay in for Dan tonight. And let me give you a little clue later on. I'm going to talk about the man, the person who won the contest to be the voice of Logan Airport. I love that guy. I don't know if you've heard his voice yet. We'll hear it again. I thought it was going to be awful.
00:00:28
Speaker 3: Hi.
00:00:28
Speaker 1: Hi.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: I walked to the airport recently and said, oh, boy, it's going to be awful walking through here, hearing this voice they've chosen. But I love it. I love the guy. I want to meet him. I want to have him on the show. If you're out there, you know, come on in. Also, I've got some other stuff to share with you in a personal way. We have three guests tonight. Our first guest. is Somerville City Councilor-at-Large Ben Wheeler, because Somerville has had great success, a really important thing, one of the most important things going on these days. You have certain risks in your life. Maybe you have high blood pressure. That's a risk. But really, if you live in an urban area, a heavily urban area, one of your biggest risks is getting hit by a car when you're crossing the road. When you're getting hit by a bicycle, getting hit by a delivery scooter. That's one of your really big risks if you live in the city. However, Somerville has been able to go four big years with no fatalities in what is the most dense town in Massachusetts. Am I correct, Ben?
00:01:43
Speaker 4: That is correct.
00:01:44
Speaker 2: Most dense in New England.
00:01:45
Speaker 4: In New England.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: That's a huge deal, and I've read some about how you did it, and it's fairly bold. It's not that expensive. It just takes a little bit of will, the kind of will that I wish other towns, including my town, would exhibit. So can you first, in detail, give me the full story on what Somerville has accomplished?
00:02:12
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Bradley. I really appreciate it.
00:02:14
Speaker 5: And I'm excited to be part of bringing attention to the really good work that our team at Somerville has done. And the first thing I just want to emphasize overall is this is work that has spanned many years, multiple mayoral administrations, multiple departments. We have a really special core team in our mobility division, which is just eight people. And they do work that it boggles my mind how much they get done with just eight people Uh, but, uh, for, you know, for a good decade plus, there's been a real focus and a commitment citywide among, um, people across the spectrum, people in all parts of government, uh, and civic society to really commit to making these changes. And so, you know, any one year, there's only a handful of streets that see differences, but, you know, like people say, uh, What you can get done in one year may not seem like much, but over 10 years, it really adds up.
00:03:12
Speaker 2: What are the things your team does day to day?
00:03:17
Speaker 5: There's a ton of looking at data, a ton of looking at information from across the city, including what residents report. Residents talk about dangerous intersections and trouble spots and report those through our 311 service on a daily basis.
00:03:34
Speaker 4: That's something that the team really looks at.
00:03:37
Speaker 5: They also look at information about where are their fender benders, where are there those not terribly dangerous small accidents that are a sign that something's not working somewhere. And a really important thing to emphasize, you know, I'm so excited there's not been a fatal pedestrian or cyclist death in four years, but if that were just kind of a quirk of the stats and actually there were just as many accidents overall, It would be a pretty precarious statistic. But we've seen a steady, steady decline over the years in non-fatal accidents as well. And that's part of what makes us feel confident that we're really on the right path.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: What is the motivation? How are you motivated as a city, town, to do this where others aren't? Was there an event that took place? Was there a... A couple of people just getting together and saying, hey, we can do better. And then more people joined in. How did it evolve?
00:04:41
Speaker 5: It's a good question. I don't have a great narrative to sort of spin to explain that. I think there's been a steady accumulation of willingness and support and some incidents where there were deaths that got a lot of attention and I think spurred people into more action. So I think another thing that people have seen, even though there's been different versions of street infrastructure changes have been tried at different places in the city at different times, and they haven't all worked perfectly. One of the things that I really appreciate about the approach that the city's taken and our mobility team has taken is is that they don't just have one cookie cutter and they say, this is the solution for everywhere. They're really looking at what's being tried around the country and even in other countries. They're looking at the particular streets and particular intersections, and they're trying things that are very specific to what they can adapt to a particular place in the city and what they think they can learn to use elsewhere.
00:05:45
Speaker 4: In the city.
00:05:47
Speaker 2: All right. And I want to include the listeners here, and I have a question for you, listeners. As you may or may not know, police forces are depleted. There's not as much manpower, person power there to do traffic enforcement. Plus, it seems to be the case that even if the cities and towns had the personnel, the will is not there for various reasons. Even if they had the manpower, there seems to be a shying away from enforcement. So two questions for you all. Are you a person that would like to see that you're happy there's no enforcement so
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you can drive like you want? Or are you a person that would like to see more enforcement? For me, I'm a rule follower. For me, there's safety in rules. There's comfort in rules. Hey, I have some inkling of an idea that that automobile or that delivery scooter is going to stop at that stop sign. That's good for me. I don't like the 50% chance that people are not going to stop. How about you? Would you like to see more enforcement? Or are you happy this way with less enforcement? You say, this is great. I can go 15 miles over the speed limit, and I know nothing's going to happen. Thing number two, if you are a person that would like to see more enforcement, would you, and here come the dreaded words, like to see automated enforcement? I would.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: I would.
00:07:22
Speaker 2: I'll find out how our guest feels about this too, but I think a case could be made. I think you could be convinced. Initially you say, oh no, what if I accidentally run a stop sign? It'll get me. Well, maybe. But think about this. It'll make money for your town. First of all, it won't use money to pay police officers. They can concentrate on more important things or other important things. It will make money for your town. And you say, well, what about privacy? Well, first of all, do you have a phone? You don't have any privacy. Did you know, and I just found this out, I was in a rideshare, one of your major rideshare companies, cars, and the radio wasn't playing. And the driver said, oh, yeah, the radio doesn't play because they're recording us. They want to hear us speaking. So my conversation in that rideshare vehicle was being recorded, and the radio is– they wouldn't allow the radio to play. So they could hear and record the conversation. Can you believe that? That's what the driver told me. So any– Any inkling of privacy that you might have, it's not there. And you say, well, what if bad actors in enforcement use this information like flock cameras' information is misused? Well, you know, this is just a tool, and tools can be misused. Care needs to be taken that the tool is used properly. Officers have weapons. They're tools which need to be used properly. Same with these cameras. Precautions need to be taken so that the information doesn't get into the wrong hands. That's just part of the thing. And, of course, public safety would be well enhanced. We're going to go to Joe in Westwood after this, and we'll continue with our guest, Ben Wheeler, and find out how Somerville has managed to have such a success with public safety in regards to traffic and pedestrian and cycle. And what about motor vehicle deaths as well? None of those either, like car accidents?
00:09:56
Speaker 4: That's a great question. To my knowledge, I don't think there's been a motor. vehicle death as well.
00:10:00
Speaker 5: And that's an important thing that sometimes people, if they think about sort of, is this a cars versus cyclists kind of battle? These changes make cars safer too.
00:10:12
Speaker 6: Right.
00:10:14
Speaker 2: So we'll continue in a moment on WBZ.
00:10:16
Speaker 1: You're on Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
00:10:22
Speaker 2: Brother Jay for Dan Ray on Nightside. Remember, if you miss any of this or you want to share, you can get to Nightside anytime by going to NightsideOnDemand.com. And also, make sure you get that iHeartRadio app on your phone. You never know when you're going to need it. Maybe you go on a trip. You're thinking, I miss my Boston. I miss my BZ. Well, you can have it if you get that iHeartRadio app. a city councilor at large, Ben Wheeler, to talk about what's behind Somerville's success in keeping traffic fatalities to zero for four years. That's quite a thing. It's a big town, the most dense in New England.
00:11:04
Speaker 4: That's right.
00:11:05
Speaker 2: So that's a big deal. And I'm floating the question, you know, if you really want public safety, you've got to have some enforcement. Enforcement's way down for various reasons. Would you get to a point where automated enforcement, meaning cameras, will be something you would be in favor of? Make money for your town, have a little public safety, free up time of officers to do other things. 617-254-1030 is the number to call. First, we go to Joe in Westwood. You're on WBZ. Hi, Joe.
00:11:39
Speaker 3: Hi, how are you doing? I'm going to be on the other side of the coin here. I just want to give you a little of my background. I've driven for 50 years commercially, have close to 6 million miles accident-free, a retired teamster, and I've been involved with the government in changing some laws. So I'm quite aware of safety issues and everything else. I'm going to be very polite and hopefully to the point. Everywhere I've driven across the country, the worst... in the country to drive through with Somerville because the speed bumps are improperly designed. The reason why they have less access and less rope is because people can't drive down the street without losing their teeth. I've called from the town and tried to talk to so many people over the last year to change it because they're illegally designed, and no one has got back to me. So, Mr. Whaler, I'm going to give my telephone number to BZ. I'd love to have you call me and try to straighten out your situation because your speed bumps are illegal. If you go up by Tufts, you cannot go down that street without losing a tooth. Doing not even, you know, well below the speed limit. They're too high, too designed, too high. The one going through Somerville, Davis Square, is designed incorrectly with the wrong materials. And it looks very nice, but it's incorrect.
00:13:11
Speaker 2: It is not.
00:13:13
Speaker 3: It is not friendly to drivers.
00:13:15
Speaker 2: Before you go on, what would the correct design and materials be?
00:13:23
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:13:24
Speaker 3: There's a code. to set up to the whole federal government about how high speed bumps
should be, what material speed bumps should be, what angle speed bumps should be, etc.
00:13:35
Speaker 6: etc.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: Somerville doesn't work that way. Somerville, some of these speed bumps are three times the height. So if you're going over a speed bump, just crawling over a speed bump, You can lose your transmission. You can lose a muffler. It's the worst city I've ever driven anywhere in this country, any part of Canada. I've been trying to straighten out with the town for many years now, coming up on two years, and no one will even call me back.
00:14:04
Speaker 6: No one.
00:14:05
Speaker 3: I tried calling the mayor's office.
00:14:07
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're in luck. You have an important person.
00:14:10
Speaker 3: This is the best thing. station i've ever turned on a long time okay so i'd like to give you my telephone number for you to call don't do it on.
00:14:18
Speaker 2: The air whatever your problem but don't.
00:14:19
Speaker 5: Do it give it to bz i i'd be happy to talk to you uh more about this but you're not wrong i i know exactly the bumps you're talking about um i don't know if you ever drive down morrison ave in somerville uh medford street near the community path there's a couple spots where they're especially high And if you contrast that to other places in the city, it sounds like from what you said, you're aware that there's other places in the city where the speed bumps are quite a bit lower and they're still very effective at slowing drivers. So this is something, I know this is going to sound like cold comfort, but this is something that a lot of people have talked to the mayor about and talked to the mobility department about. The mobility department has talked about realizing some mistakes that they made early on.
00:15:11
Speaker 2: So you could just lower the height of these speed bumps.
00:15:13
Speaker 4: Yeah. And what about the, in.
00:15:14
Speaker 3: Some cases, the one in Davis square is not handicap accessible. I don't know.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: That specific one. So I, I'd be curious to, to go.
00:15:27
Speaker 3: It's a real nice one with the granite sides. It's not handicap accessible. So somebody is handicapped, but slip off that crosswalk. It looks very pretty, but it's not handicap accessible. So, You guys in Somerville really got to get with the program and do the right thing. Now, I've been involved in changing laws through the state. I've been involved with the team since so many years and a bunch of things. I'm not using anybody's name here. I'm just telling you my personal choice of what I've done to help our people. I believe that bikes should be on the road. I believe people should be on the road. And I believe people drive way too fast. But what's happening to the city of Somerville, they're penalizing people. The people driving through the town losing mufflers, brakes, and they're not, again, Davis, I'd like to meet you personally, take you through Davis Square, take you down
by TUS and show you personally how these speed bumps are illegal. They're not handicap accessible. I'm surprised no one has sued or gone after the city because of it. I mean, it's that big of a problem. And hopefully I'm not cruel to you, but I'm just trying to tell you the truth.
00:16:32
Speaker 6: You guys got a problem.
00:16:34
Speaker 2: What about the materials? You said the materials were not right. What kind of guidance can.
00:16:39
Speaker 3: You give on that? If you go online, there's certain codes and restrictions. They copy certain heights. They copy over. They have to have a certain bend to it. So if a car hits it, there has to be a little round to it. So if it's square... When a car hits, it's going to knock off the oil tank. It's going to do damage. I'm surprised there hasn't been any accidents because the car's losing control on these speed bumps. I would love to take anybody over and try to do 10 miles an hour, even 5 miles an hour on one of these speed bumps and see what I'm talking about. It's an unsafe situation for people driving, which can lose control of the car. Now, if you go through Davis Square, they've got a beautiful one. Whoever designed it was gorgeous to But it's too high. Somebody handicapped or disabled, let me use the proper term, disabled, could slip off this crosswalk.
00:17:34
Speaker 2: You did address that, and we only have a little time, and I want to take advantage of your expertise in driving.
00:17:39
Speaker 3: So they have green on both sides.
00:17:42
Speaker 6: Okay.
00:17:43
Speaker 2: You guys can hash that out later if it's cool with.
00:17:48
Speaker 4: Yes, I would be happy to.
00:17:50
Speaker 2: You can contact his office, right?
00:17:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah. I can give you my number on the air.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: No, do you want to? Yeah, yeah.
00:17:56
Speaker 4: I mean, it's on my website. It's a public thing. Okay, do it.
00:17:59
Speaker 3: 617-942-1488.
00:17:59
Speaker 4: That was pretty fast.
00:18:02
Speaker 2: Can you do it slower?
00:18:03
Speaker 4: Sorry. Thank you. I appreciate that, Bradley. 617-942-1488. 1488.
00:18:12
Speaker 6: Eight.
00:18:12
Speaker 2: And we've tried to remember to do that.
00:18:13
Speaker 3: And I'd love to meet you, and I'd love to design a program that would really work for everybody. That's the key for everybody.
00:18:20
Speaker 2: Before you go, Joe, you're a professional driver. You drive for a living, and you must see a lot of dumb stuff on the road. And there's a lot of drivers listening to you right now.
00:18:31
Speaker 6: Right.
00:18:31
Speaker 2: What are some of the things that you see out there that you would like to tell them to not do or to do? Say you are the.
00:18:39
Speaker 3: Common courtesy. People don't have courtesy. After the pandemic, people are just driving way too fast. Everybody thinks they own the road, including the walkers, the riders, the bikes, the moped. No one uses common courtesy.
00:18:53
Speaker 2: It's true.
00:18:54
Speaker 3: It's like a ping pong machine out there. And that's where everybody has to start. The police have to start giving tickets to everybody. For instance, I was going to Arlington last year. And I had a bike rider fly through the bike path. You know, it's a crosswalk. I slammed my brakes and I was going wobbles. We just missed him. There was a police officer there. I said, oh, my God, I'm going to get a ticket. Even me, as somebody who's professional, I don't know all the laws. So the police officer called me over and the bike rider. And he said to the bike rider, You think I should give him a ticket? The bike rider said, yes. He goes, no, I'm giving you a ticket because you're supposed to get off this bike and walk across the intersection because this is the reason why. So people are not doing the right thing. The bikers think they own the road. The cars think they own the road. The pedestrians think they own the road. You ever see anybody get a jaywalking ticket anymore? No one respects. everybody. It has to stop and basic again. And since the pandemic, I've never seen it so bad. I got beat that by an elderly man, 92 years old, because the light had not turned green yet because he was in a hurry to get to the light turning green. Now the big thing now, the big thing now is when you put your blinker on, Just started. You put your blinker on slowing down to go around a corner at the proper speed. People come up and they beep up and they beep at you right up your tail and beep at you like you shouldn't be slowing down to take the corner. The police have to do the right thing. I believe in cameras, if that's the case. I believe there should be, you know, a chance, one or two chances. But the third or fourth time you're paying a ticket, the insurance goes up. The only way you're going to make this get better is have people pay penalties. and have the police enforce it by cameras or whatever.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: I hear you.
00:20:41
Speaker 3: And again, the towns have to work together too, to make it safe. Because if you go on these speed bumps, Bradley, I'll take you and him. I'll take, I mean, anybody can gladly take you down and show you speed bumps and you tell me if I'm right.
00:20:54
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:20:54
Speaker 3: I will spend a day.
00:20:56
Speaker 4: Great call.
00:20:56
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:20:57
Speaker 2: Great, great, great call. And I hope you guys connect. Take care, Joe. Maybe we can find out. We all know there's not much enforcement and, As Joe said, people need to start getting tickets. I firmly believe that. But why is the enforcement so low? There are probably multiple reasons. And maybe City Councilor at large and our guest, Ben Wheeler, has an idea of why that all is. We'll find out. And I ask you, are you ready for automated enforcement yet? Are you ready for cameras now? to get really aggressive speeders and people who just completely, arrogantly blew the light. More to come on Nightside on WBZ.
00:21:39
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
00:21:45
Speaker 2: Dan's off tonight. Bradley J in for Dan. We have Rob Brooks working the wheel. He's running the master control in there, making it all happen. And we're with our special guest from Somerville, Ben Wheeler, city councilor at large, talking about city success regarding public safety and zero deaths, zero pedestrians, zero bike, and maybe zero vehicular.
00:22:11
Speaker 4: I believe zero vehicular deaths as well.
00:22:13
Speaker 2: That's pretty great. And remember, this is a very dense, the most dense city in all of New England. So it's a big deal. And what they're doing, you know, is sort of controversial. And it has... it doesn't all work magically at once, but they do have the courage to try and the open-mindedness to fix what needs fixing. What a wonderful call from Joe. Joe really knew, A, what he was talking about as a driver. He really knew the city of Somerville.
00:22:45
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:22:45
Speaker 2: Like, crazy. And you mentioned during the break there that he had a good point. Yeah. And you mentioned that, and then, Related to that, I asked you, what advice would you have for cities and towns who want to take public safety, traffic safety seriously? What advice would you have from your trial and error for these towns and cities?
00:23:11
Speaker 5: Well, I think it's really important to recognize this success that Summerville has had is not because we're super geniuses or we have a magic wand. It's really been about learning. It's about trying ideas and paying attention.
00:23:27
Speaker 4: To the result. And some of that, I think, were mistakes early on.
00:23:34
Speaker 5: I've been told by folks who've been in city government longer than I have that when there was first a kind of rollout of speed bumps, there wasn't a plan in place for how to measure after the bumps were installed by contractors.
00:23:51
Speaker 4: To compare performance.
00:23:52
Speaker 5: The heights in the designs to what we actually got. And that there were a bunch of cases where the heights were wrong. And that's something that maybe we didn't go into with quite enough of a plan for what to do if the result didn't match up with our designs. And that's one of the areas where we've had to learn. But you can't get to the point of having the process work well without having mistakes without having hiccups and without having things that you have to learn from. And so I think that creativity, that willingness to try has been a real asset.
00:24:34
Speaker 2: How much of the problem is the attitudes of people? Bikers, walkers, drivers, everybody. And how the heck do you change that? And I guess that falls under community expectations.
00:24:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:24:49
Speaker 5: I mean, obviously, if you could... improve the quality of driving, the attention that people are paying. If you could have people not have their eyes on cell phones, whether they're
driving or walking across the street, or for that matter, biking sometimes, then obviously that would improve safety too. Those are things where, you know, I think it's important to give attention to that. And there are different ideas and efforts to try to reduce phone use while people.
00:25:17
Speaker 4: Are driving vehicles.
00:25:18
Speaker 5: But a big point that Brad Ross and the Director of Mobility makes is that we need solutions that work around the clock. We need solutions that don't expect that everybody's going to be attentive all the time. We need solutions that help guide everybody towards safe behavior. And that's one of the reasons why there's such a focus on streetscaping infrastructure. And And there have been so many places around the city where they have taken wide areas where there's several lanes of traffic that someone might have to cross as a pedestrian and at intersections made sidewalk bump outs so that cars have to slow down and negotiate around each other. It's a bit inconvenient for them, but a pedestrian is going to be able to cross with a much shorter distance and one where cars are going to be slowing down and negotiating instead of speeding through at a high speed.
00:26:22
Speaker 2: In a particular article, I noticed that it mentioned that you have raised crosswalks. I have trouble picturing that. How does that work? Why do you do it? What are the benefits of a raised crosswalk?
00:26:38
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:26:39
Speaker 5: So a raised crosswalk is just a crosswalk where the street height around it is lower. And the sidewalk is generally up at sort of curb level.
00:26:49
Speaker 2: You mean the crosswalk.
00:26:51
Speaker 6: Sorry.
00:26:51
Speaker 4: Thank you. The crosswalk is up at sidewalk level.
00:26:54
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:26:55
Speaker 4: And that does a couple of things.
00:26:57
Speaker 5: So on either side of that, on the street, there's a bit of a ramp up and a ramp down. So in some ways, it's kind of like an elongated speed bump that is a flat top.
00:27:07
Speaker 4: But it also raises.
00:27:09
Speaker 5: The pedestrians up above the level that they'd be at if they were just walking down on the street.
00:27:15
Speaker 4: So, uh, drivers tend to see them better.
00:27:18
Speaker 5: And, you know, as cars have changed over the years and there's bigger, heavier cars, there's cars where drivers are, are up quite a bit higher than they used to be. Typically, uh, that, that makes a big difference, you know, especially if you're talking about like a six-year-old, uh, who might not be terribly tall crossing the street, those extra six inches or whatever it is make a big difference. And then, The fact that there is a sort of speed bump-like ramp up and ramp down on either side of the crosswalk, it means that even if a driver's not scanning for a pedestrian who's ready to step into the.
00:27:52
Speaker 2: Street … More likely to notice it.
00:27:53
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:27:54
Speaker 5: They're more likely
to be slowing down already. So, you know, if, God forbid, there is a collision, it's at a lower speed as well.
00:28:02
Speaker 2: One thing I like to see is bike lanes painted. In each community, there should be … You decide maybe it should be statewide. Certain color means bike lane. Because the configuration of bike lanes changes. This 100 yards is this way. This 100 yards is not. And it moves over here. And it's easy to not concentrate if you're a pedestrian, especially now since this is relatively new. And if it were painted a particular color, to me, that would be a big help. And it doesn't seem that expensive. I'd like to. vote for the color green. If you see green, you know that you really got to watch out because there's somebody, either a bicyclist or an e-motorcycle, and that's what I call the higher level e-bikes that can go 50 miles an hour. Those are e-motorcycles. They're motorcycles with an electric motor. And they use those lanes. I don't believe they should. I talked to a dealer of these bicycles, bicycles one time. I said, these are awful heavy and I can't imagine people pedal these things. He said, oh no, they don't. These pedals are just stuck on here. This is paraphrasing. Stuck on here to make them legal in bike lanes. So they don't belong there. And it's important that everybody realize what is the bike lane because if you step back into it or you're not paying attention, one of those Folks with a chip on their show's to take you out and they're going to believe that they were in the right when they did it most of the time because you're in my bike lane. Anyway, in the final segment here, I do want to talk to you about what provisions you've made for dealing with What they call micromobility. Communities have not put together new rules to deal with all these forms of micromobility. They're out there, but the rules to deal with them are not there. And I want to find out how you've dealt with that. Pretty successfully, I guess, and that'll be after this break. Let me finish. We'll do the break and we'll find out about that. Rob, take it away.
00:30:24
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
00:30:29
Speaker 2: All righty, final segment with our guest, Ben Wheeler, Counselor-at-Large in Somerville. And we're talking about the success they've been having with traffic safety, no fatalities, four years running. Pretty cool. Now, how do you deal with micromobility? Everybody wants to know how to deal with it. There they are. The bicycles, of course, then the really fast e-bikes and the scooters. And there are no rules. What do you do? How do you deal with it? And do you have any advice for other towns?
00:31:05
Speaker 6: Thanks.
00:31:06
Speaker 5: Well, there are some rules, but the industry has been moving sort of faster than government can make rules to sort of keep track of it. And there's quite a few motorized two-wheeled vehicles on the street in Massachusetts that are not, strictly speaking, street legal in Massachusetts. Some of them, that can go really fast.
00:31:28
Speaker 2: What are you exactly talking about?
00:31:30
Speaker 5: I mean, the battery-powered sort of mopeds or e-motos, they kind of look to me like an old gas-powered moped, but you can see a big battery pack in the middle.
00:31:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of them have big, gigantic, fat knobby tires made to look aggressive and go, some of them, 50 miles an hour.
00:31:52
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:52
Speaker 5: And like any vehicle, these are mostly used most of the time for people to get around town and get where they're going.
00:32:01
Speaker 2: Yeah. That's a nice scenario, but it doesn't look or feel like that. It looks like you're going 50 miles an hour at night with no lights. And if there's a bike in the way, look out. And if you're in the crosswalk, look out. And for some reason, they go faster than the vehicles. Vehicle, if you're in a town with a 25 mile an hour speed limit, they kind of pay attention to that. These bikes, they feel it doesn't apply. They're going 40 sometimes.
00:32:30
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:32:31
Speaker 4: Well, the lighter the vehicle, the easier it is to accelerate, right?
00:32:34
Speaker 5: So I think often, you know, a light turns green or just one of these Emotos kind of comes out of nowhere and it can quickly get up to 40, whip around a turn, and then it may go back down.
00:32:48
Speaker 2: I know you're a very progressive town, and you've got to be pro-micromobility, but how do you deal with making people or trying to make people behave? Or do you?
00:33:01
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:33:01
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, first of all, it's really hard. It's really hard.
00:33:05
Speaker 5: To introduce not just rules on paper that sound good, but changes that are going to make a consistent difference day to day. I know one of the big areas that the mobility team in Somerville has been working just in the past month or two in particular is on the community path, where since that's used by so many different people with different methods of getting around, pedestrians, joggers, cyclists, there's been so much that I've heard, other people have heard about the problems caused when someone goes by, you know, people who are strolling or jogging or even biking at a reasonable speed, and someone comes by at 25 miles an hour and whips around them. So yes, the mobility team has a three-phased plan that they are currently in phase one of. So phase one involves putting in what they are calling rumble strips, these little thermoplastic white strips of five little bumps.
00:34:09
Speaker 4: For micro-mobility, you're talking, not for cars.
00:34:11
Speaker 5: Right, this is on the community path, which is the cars are not allowed on. And the idea with these rumble strips is these are not very big, tall bumps. This is something more that gives a little jostle.
00:34:26
Speaker 2: To make you pay attention.
00:34:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's more for attention. It's
not like a speed bump in that it it drastically changes.
00:34:33
Speaker 2: And you know what it does? It expresses community expectation. That's a great way of putting it. Which needs to be done. You can have a police officer. You can't have a police officer at every crosswalk. And even if there were, when they leave, there's no incentive to pay attention. But community expectation, if they know everybody around them is looking and bombing out on them if they act badly, that's kind of an incentive. And And the rumble strips convey a community expectation. Exactly.
00:35:06
Speaker 5: And together with the rumble strips, they also did a bunch of putting down paint designs that remind.
00:35:14
Speaker 6: People of that.
00:35:14
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, like squiggle lines?
00:35:16
Speaker 2: Like jagged lines?
00:35:17
Speaker 5: No, that have text, you know, the message look coming up on intersections pointing either way for where cars are.
00:35:26
Speaker 4: Reminders to slow down and signs.
00:35:31
Speaker 5: That emphasize that it's a shared road and that show pictures of types of vehicles that are not allowed, including scooters.
00:35:38
Speaker 2: Cool. Let's talk to Jack and Newton. We don't have much time. Jack, a little bit of time. What's up?
00:35:44
Speaker 6: Yeah, I agree. Thank you. Very good show. They have to be registered. These are not bicycles. These are motorized things. And what is the state doing about getting them a license, because if they hit somebody right now, you can never track them down. They have to have a license, and they have to get some training, but that might be difficult education-wise. I mean, taking the time to educate these young guys and gals. What do you think?
00:36:12
Speaker 2: All right, what do you think about registration of these beasts?
00:36:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think some version of that should happen, and I think there's work right now on Beacon Hill around this. I think it's still a work in progress to try to sort of adapt the categories that are allowed and how registration might work. So I don't think there's a plan in terms of sort of registration and licensing that's ready to go now. But there's a lot of discussion about that on Beacon Hill, and I share your hope that we're going to get some clarity there because a vehicle that, you know, people are are going 15 or 20 miles an hour is kind of one thing, and 30-plus miles an hour is just a totally different kind of beast.
00:37:01
Speaker 2: Thanks, Jack. Good call. I have like three, four minutes. I'm going to ask you about being a city councilor.
00:37:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker 2: How do you deal with– people don't call you up and say, attaboy. They call up and they complain, and a lot of them are not as nice as Joe earlier. People are mean and you have to do that all. Do you have to have a special constitution to be a city councilor? Like people have asked, said, Bradley J, you should run for your town government. I think, I don't know what little I've had to do with town government. It makes my blood pressure go through the roof. How do you deal with it?
00:37:39
Speaker 5: Well, something I'll say first of all is that everybody wants to know that the concerns and problems that they're having are being taken seriously. And I have found even people who disagree with me So there's a lot of people who really disagree with me about these street changes and who think they make no sense. But I can honestly tell them if they're talking about not being able to make a turn safely or reliably that they used to be able to make before these changes. that matters to me. It honestly does. And I don't have to sort of pretend it matters to me. It matters to me.
00:38:16
Speaker 2: So you just say, hey, I get it. I'll see what I can do.
00:38:20
Speaker 5: And so I find that almost all the time, the conversation, once in a while, there's somebody who just wants to rant angrily. But almost all the time, I find that we can have some common ground. We can talk about the problems somebody's running into. And even if the issue somebody's raising, I'm not going to make all of the changes that they want me to make or, or push for those changes for, for the city administration to do them. I can take their concerns seriously and I can bring those up with city staff and say, Hey, you know, I am hearing about this problem. And I do that sometimes, including to the mobility department.
00:38:56
Speaker 2: Perfect. We have to leave. I do want to thank you and your entire team for all the work you do. And thanks to you for coming out. If you missed any of this, you'll want to hear the whole thing. If you miss any show ever on Nightside, it's nightsideondemand.com. Next up, Have you tried to get a new primary care physician recently? What kind of luck did you have? I'm betting it was pretty bad. There's a terrible shortage. I want to know why and how bad it's going to get, and we're going to find out in the next hour on WBZ.